A Visit to Santa

Sloan, so confident & growing up too fast. A lot of kids at school are telling her there is no such thing as Santa. A few days ago she got into the car and was extremely flustered that so many kids were making fun of her. "Mom", she said, "Is Santa real?" I asked her if she felt he was real & she answered yes. I then proceeded to talk to her about how Santa will be real for as long as she believes. Did I mention she's only in 4th grade? I like that she still believes in Santa & Elvie (her little elf that she still swears comes alive at night!) I love that she still likes to play with dolls & Barbies sometimes. Sloan you have your whole life ahead of you to be a "big kid" so enjoy this time as long as you can.

Then sweet little Zoe sat on his lap & proceeded to tell Santa that she wanted her two front teeth. She only said this because Sloan told her to, but it still made me laugh. Then she told him she wanted a penguin. That is all she wants from Santa.....a penguin. She's my easy to please kid.

Last but certainly not least is little Aris who clung to me like a little monkey not wanting to let go. I knew she was going to cry but I still wanted the picture (mean mommy). So I pried her from my body and set her down. There were no wishes to be had here. Nope. I can't help but giggle when I look at this picture. It's just so sad it's funny.

I am so glad I have these photos & yes they are real Polaroids (even cooler!) I hope all of you are enjoying this time of year. We are pretty excited to go & visit family. The girls can hardly wait & truthfully neither can I. Christmas this year is going to be a little different. Instead of oodles of gifts at grandma & grandpas house they have decided to take the whole family to Disneyland. I don't know who will be more excited, the kids or me! I am looking forward to their first experience of such a fun & magical place.

My only wish for Christmas is to feel better. I will be 15 weeks this weekend. I feel much better than I did even last week however my energy level is zero. At the end of each day I look around my messy unswept house & say to myself, maybe tomorrow I'll get this mess cleaned up. My only comfort is knowing that I can't feel sick forever. So if you decide to pay a surprise visit to my house you will be greeted by me with no makeup, a sink full of dishes, floors that haven't been swept since Thanksgiving (how disgusting is that?) frozen Halloween pumpkins on the porch, seriously folks it doesn't get more Jud Clampit than my house looks right now. So since I still believe in Santa maybe just maybe my Christmas wish will come true. Here's to hoping all you Christmas wishes come true too :)

Speaking of Babies................

I saw this preview today on a friends facebook page & I swear I have watched it over a dozen times. It just looks like it will be amazing. How cute are those little babies? I can hardly wait to see this movie. Speaking of babies, I can hardly wait to meet our newest addition that will be making it's way into our little home in early June. I have been feeling pretty yucky these days hence the lack of blogging. I figure if I can hardly find the energy to clean my house & most days I feel like I have been super mom if I get my kids bathed & dressed & fed..... I probably don't have anything interesting to write about. I am pretty sure the few people that visit my blog don't swing by to listen to my barf stories :) Hoping to be over the worst of this morning sickness before the first part of the year. I will be hitting the 3 month mark in just 2 weeks! I'm still at that weird stage of:: is she pregnant, or did she eat too much ice cream last night? Not big enough for maternity clothes but my shirts are getting tight. Once the constant sickness is over I plan on enjoying every step of this pregnancy since this little one will be our last. 4 is a perfect number for us. I have missed you all. Hope to catch up on every ones blogs over the next few weeks. Hugs to you all!

Just A Little Hello

We have been pretty busy around here but mostly I have been taking a lot of naps with the girls and reading them lots of books while snuggled in our bed. I've been letting Dean cook whenever he wants and keeping up with the house as best as I can. I recently have made it a point to be in bed before 10pm, mostly because I am too tired to even watch television after the fact. I feel rested & have loved the special time with my sweet girls. It has taken a toll on the ol' creative schedule. That's okay. The schedule can wait. It will have it's turn once again in the spring. Right now I will enjoy the extra time with all the people I love most. I will still be posting here and there but am taking an unofficial break from my day to day blogging schedule....just until after the holidays. I haven't felt 100% lately and the best thing I can do for my family and myself is to slow down a little. Hugs to you all!

Art Night

First art night with Sloan.

Second art night with Sloan.

You can click on the above drawings to see all the detail. I've tried art night with Sloan in the past & it's kind of a hit or miss thing. She recently asked if we could start drawing together again. I haven't been feeling very well lately so it's been fun to work on art with my girl. She motivates me & I think I do the same for her. She gets a little frustrated sometimes when she doesn't get things just right. I explain that it takes years, YEARS, to sometimes have art look the way you want it to. Even then you still will make mistakes. I also also emphasize there really are no mistakes in art, only happy accidents :)

I chose to give her the little Van Gogh book I bought at a thrift store. It's vintage and has that dusty old smell (I love that smell). I feel that Van Gogh is a pretty easy artist to understand. The movement & emotion of his paintings span the generations. You & I as adults might read a deeper meaning from his work, but children understand a certain level of emotion from his works also. Sloan was very fascinated with the story of the artist chopping off his ear. I explained his life in age appropriate terms. Didn't feel she needed to know about the prostitutes & drug use. She loves his use of color and all the different brush strokes in his paintings. I would have to agree with her.

So from time to time I will be posting our art night sessions. If any of you do this with your kids, please let me know. It would be so much fun to link back to your art nights too :) Happy weekend everyone!

Newest Card

I finished up Novembers card for

Simply Sweet Marriage

You can download it now for free!

(Card is made with various scrapbook paper & embroidery thread)

Halloween Night

Remember this darling Halloween feast over at

Sweet B Folkart?

I won this little guy! How cute is he? I tried to take some pictures of him myself but Amelia's photos did it the justice it deserves. Thank you so much for this darling Halloween treat. It will be treasured for years to come.

Here they are! Sloan was a fairy, Abby was a witch (friendly of course) Aris was a ladybug, & Zoe was Princess Jasmin.

This is the third year we have gone trick-or-treating with Abby & her mom. It's sort of our Halloween tradition if you will. Something we look forward to. The girls got a ton of candy and had fun in the process.

Zoe got into the Halloween spirit this year & Aris really understood the concept of receiving candy. She even said trick-or-treat & thank you. It was pretty adorable.

She was a little apprehensive about running right up to the doors. She watched to make sure the girls were not scared & then made her way up to the door. This was pretty much the scene at every door.

This poor guy got a little lost last night! Maybe Mars was out of candy bars? Lol! Okay so it's a lame joke. We all got a kick out of him & had to pose for some pictures.

We had such a fun Halloween. Hope you all had a great time too!

Happy Birthday Zoe!

So hard to believe she is one year older! Time flies when you have more than one little one to keep up with. I seriously feel like the days are zooming past too quickly. Sometimes I just wish they could slow down, just a bit. Today we all went to the pumpkin patch & got our pumpkins for carving. Then we took the girls to a lovely little park near the river. It was a day filled with special family time. Just what Zoe requested. Tomorrow we will have her birthday dinner and I am making a yummy Scotch Chocolate cake. It's an old family favorite. Of course she will get to open her gifts & then blow out the candles. I just found out tonight that Zoe shares her birthday with not only her uncle Isaac, but a few of my cousins too. Kind of a fun little fact. Hope you all had a great weekend.

P.S. SALE!!!!! SALE!!!!! SALE!!!!!

In the shop!

For every $75 you spend you get a $25 dollar discount!

So head on over and pick up a few things for you or that special someone in your life. Don't see what you want? Let me know. I love commissions!

Lots of Work

Found via flicker (Halloween in the time of cholera)

I figured I'd drop a quick little hello & share the above photo. How creepy & cool is that? Love these old Halloween photos of kids in costumes. There is something so haunting about the masks. Masks are super weird to me. Since the eyes are the window to the soul it bothers me when I am unable to see them. Gives me kind of an uneasy feeling. For some reason I'm super hooked on these old images. You can find old Halloween photos for sale on ebay but be forewarned they are a bit pricey. The least expensive one's I found started at $8 & went up in price pretty quickly. I am going to keep my eyes open for some of these lost memories of the past. Always makes me a little sad to think that no one wanted these old photos. They are someones memories. Somehow this makes me feel a little better about giving them a new home.

So I'm off to get the little munchkins into bed then work on some art. I will have a shop update on Monday along with a Fall Sale! So be sure to drop back by. I promise you won't want to miss it!

Weight Loss Wednesdays

Hey you guys! weighed myself last week and the results were unkind! Ugh! gained 2 pounds. So that's the bad news. The good news.....I started running in the mornings! Melanie & I walk the first mile to warm up (our walk is a fast walk). Then we do fartleks. They are really great for building muscles. When I ran cross country in high school we did them at most practices.

The running has given me the renewed energy that I needed. I look forward to workouts. There is something so relaxing about running. I look forward to the day I can run the WHOLE 3 miles & then some.

Hugs to you all! Look forward to visiting your blogs later tonight. Happy Wednesday!

Spooky Spider & A Witch Hat

"Spider"

"Mrs. Witch's hat"

Both in the ::shop::

I'm heading out the door in a while to teach my very first scrapbook illustration class. I'm a little nervous, but more excited than anything. Wish me luck!

P.S. Speaking of luck, I won two other giveaways in the past week! I won the darling Halloween giveaway from Sweet B & some amazing fabric from Sarah Fielke of the blog The Last Piece. It is so pretty & I can't wait to make a quilt out of it. I will post pictures as soon as they come in the mail.

Giveaways

How cute are these adorable fall baskets? You can win them ::here::

Go ::here:: for this cutie pie snow slug from the talented Hine Mizushima

Go ::here:: for your chance to win this adorable handmade lion from the talented Nicole.

Candy Corn & Ghosties

"Mr. Candycorn"

SOLD!

"Lil Ghostie"

I thought I would make 4 smaller pieces to add to the shop for Halloween. These will come in an upcycled plastic frame. They measure 5"x7" and would look so cute hanging on a wall as a group, or by themselves on a shelf or bookcase. I will take some pictures & put them in the shop tomorrow. Today it rained on & off all day long which makes for terrible indoor or outdoor photos for that matter.

Well I am off! Off to finish up the last two illustrations. Maybe I'll go ahead & add them to the post later tonight if I can get them wrapped up after my three little monkeys go to bed. Hope you all had a spooktackular Monday!

P.S.

~{I went ahead & put these in the shop.

I promise to add more photos tomorrow!}~

Queen of Hearts and Alice in Wonderland Costume Set GIVEAWAY!!!!

Queen of Hearts and Alice in Wonderland Costume Set GIVEAWAY!!!!

Could these be any cuter?

Halloweeny Goodness

Just put these little goodies in the shop!

It only took me two weeks, lol! I wanted to put them in at the beginning of the week but the weather just wouldn't cooperate. It was pretty much overcast & rainy for the first part of the week. So glad to have them finished . I'm working on a few more little Halloween goodies tonight after the kids go to bed. They will be pretty small but fun none the less. Hope you all are enjoying your weekend!

Where the Wild Things Are

I got this little package of goodness in the mail last week from Jayme of Roadside Projects.

Look what was inside! The beautiful print I won! So sad I won't be able to go to the opening night of the movie. I am however hoping to take Sloan & Zoe to it next weekend. Are you going to see this movie tonight? It looks like it will be amazing!

Weight Loss Wednesdays

I know I'm late on this but things have been a little crazy around here today. I got a little part time gig cleaning a house every other Wednesday. It was a lot of work but so happy to make the extra money. I'm saving money for a rainy day:)

Speaking of rainy days, the weather here has been awful! Cold & wet & my walking partner has been ill. So I haven't walked but once this week. I wasn't feeling so great either. The extra sleep in the morning has left me feeling rested.

I'm still hoping to weigh myself this week. I don't own a scale so I rely on my friends, only I haven't had a chance to step on the darn thing in weeks. If I get to this Friday I will post the weight update then. I hope everyone is having a great week & I look forward to posting on time next week.

Thimble Summer the Game

The playing pieces

Finish

Start

Can you tell she was pretty happy with the end product? It was a fun project to help her with. She worked so hard on all the art. I only helped to cut out the circles and glue it all down. If you're ever in town, drop on by and play a couple games with us!

Studio Progress

I woke up Saturday morning not really knowing what the day would hold.

You can imagine my excitement when Dean started working.........

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!On this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whoot! Whoot!

Hard to believe that just a few months back this was a promise, now its a reality! Dean said he will try to work on the playhouse deck & ladder next weekend if weather allows. Eventually there will be a large deck attached to the left of the studio that will wrap around the tree. We will put our table and chairs on that side for outdoor lunches and sunset dinners in late spring and summer. The branch is perfect for holding an old chandelier that we can light up while eating in the evenings. I can hardly wait! To the right of the studio will be the swing set. The girls can hardly wait for that part to happen. I'm just tickled pink with everything Dean has done. He is such a hard worker! Man am I lucky to be married to this guy or what!?!

I want you to know that so far this whole project has cost a little under $300. Almost all of the building supplies have been repurposed & upcycled materials from the different remodels that Dean has worked on. The wood he got for a killer deal, $50! The Trex deck material that he is using for the deck was salvaged from a deck remodel he did up at Lake Tahoe about 2 years ago. This is stuff that clients want him to haul away to the dump. Dean asks if he may use it & the clients are always happy to save on a dump fee. It's a win win situation. These are materials that are still in good shape just not what the client wanted anymore. It feels good to give it a second life and it sure does help the ol' pocketbook.

We have had such a fun & busy weekend. I'll have to share the rest of our adventures tomorrow. Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend too.

P.S. Found another amazing giveaway go ::here:: to enter for a chance to win some lovely fabric & don't forget to sign up for the newsletter too!

Cute Halloweeny Giveaway

I don't know about you, but I love to get comments. They just make my day & always bring a smile to my face. I recently received a comment from Jackie of Fat Jack Originals. She makes the most adorable sculptures. She is also hosting a Halloween giveaway for one of her cute Halloween creations, it will be something similar to the one pictures above. So run on over and say hello!

Weight Loss Wednesdays

Today's workout never happened. It makes me a little sad when I have rough nights with the kids. If they are up more than 3 times I just don't chance it. If Sloan wakes up low I don't get to go either. This very cold fall weather also makes it a little harder to roll out of a warm & toasty bed. Especially when I am snuggled up next to a snuggly hubby.

So what am I doing to make things easier on these cold mornings? I have started laying all my clothes, hat & gloves into a pile the night before. I have a routine of dressing in front of our space heater that I turn on first thing. I don't put ice in my water anymore for my walk. I also am not going to beat myself up over missing a walk. I have my video for days that I just don't make it. It's that time of year again & I think I have found some helpful ways to beat the frosty morning walk blues, haahaa!

I'll be weighing myself this Friday so I look forward to sharing my progress with you all next Wednesday. Thanks for all your encouraging thoughts. It has been so fun to meet new friends through Weight Loss Wednesdays. Hope you all have a great rest of the week!

Pumpkins

I have had the opportunity to have a friend come over and work on art. It is so much fun to work along with another creative person. I feel like I have gotten quite a bit accomplished too. These 4 pumpkins are almost ready to put in the shop. Yippie! Can't wait to finish them and get to some of the painting projects I have on my list.

I'm also helping Sloanie with her big reading project at the moment. She chose to make a game that had to do with her book. I have cut all the squares for her (didn't want her to use my cutter) and she has made the most adorable drawings to go on the board. The book she read was Thimble Summer. It is a very sweet story. I think I enjoyed it maybe even more than she did. I will post some pictures of the game when she has finished.

Gotta go. 5:20 comes awful early & I feel like I'm getting a sore throat. Yikes! Hope to post the finished pumpkins soon. Oh & please pardon the dust around here. I'm in the middle of making a Halloween banner, just have to put it up in the AM. I do so love these Halloween colors don't you?

Fall is Here

Hard to believe that just a few weeks ago we were lounging around the yard & playing in warm crunchy grass.

The girls were helping daddy in the garden & running around in bare feet. Now we have taken all the winter boots and clothes out of storage & put them into drawers. There is something so cozy about sitting inside a cozy home with a toasty sweater on. I Love watching my girls run around in pants and layered shirts.

This weekend brought the first frost & snow of the season. Dean finished roofing the studio/playhouse so it would be ready for the upcoming snow and moisture of winter. He plans on putting up the rest of the siding this weekend & hopes to bring an upcycled door home from the remodel he is working on. It will be painted a deep cranberry red before we put it on (to match our front & back door). So excited about the thought of moving all of my art supplies and creative mess into my own little space. It won't happen until the spring, but it will be here before I know it & is worth the wait.

Only 4 of our pumpkins survived but they are the cutest little pumpkins I have ever seen.

The garden has died with the first frost, but the broccoli is still doing great. We had such a fun time with our very first garden & love that our girls are growing up with a love of watching something grow from the ground up. They love eating salads and other meals prepared with veggies from our garden. Can't wait to plant again in the spring.

Things have been so crazy around here. I have so many fun things that I have been working on & can't wait to share them with you over the next couple of days. Hope everyone is enjoying the beginning of fall as much as we are.